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Hurricane Heather Coming Through!

What a whirlwind of activity! As most of you know, I attended my first book convention as an author with Eve Langlais (squeee!!) and several other fantastic authors.

I picked up Trinity Blacio on Wednesday, where we then rushed off to New York and spent the night with the fantastic Amber and Craig. (Oh the food they fed us was simple and yet divine!) We spent the night and woke up at an hour only the insane would choose to willingly wake up, even the sun hadn’t risen its glorious head around the horizon! (IE it was about 3am!) But we slurped our coffee and gradually made our way back to the rented SUV where we drove through the backwoods of Upper New York on our way to the 1,000 Island Bridge crossing into Canada! It was a beautiful trip through twisting turns and hills, small little villages and farm country!

Look at this AWESOME car magnet she had made for me! We each had one, for our car doors, as we drove to/from the event!

Around 11:30AM we finally hit the border – and let me tell you… that bridge!? FRIGHTENING! I detest bridges, but I drove over it like a champ! Our guard was a VERY handsome French-Canadian with short, curly black hair and a bit of a 5 O’Clock shadow. (He didn’t think I was serious when I asked if we could take him home!) After he asked a few simple questions he waved us through.

After an adventure of unpacking the car and settling into our rooms, we wandered around for a bit before helping to pack the HUGE, MASSIVE (stuff-your-10-year-old-boy-into-them) bags for registration and the dinner! I supplied over 300 handmade bookmarks with a business card in them, because we weren’t allowed any paper products. Thursday was mostly a “wind down” day since we’d been in the car for almost 12 hours by that point, thankfully broken up by several stops and a rest at Amber’s!

Friday morning dawned bright and early, and we waited in the lobby for my old high school friend to show up. There was a rather large accident, so she was a tad late, but after much squealing, hugging, and reminiscing, we all (Trinity Blacio, Becka, and myself) loaded into her car and off we went! I probably shouldn’t have, but we took a great tour of Ottawa. With Becka pointing out several landmarks. We even managed to see the Changing of the Guard at the Unknown Soldier Memoriam! (I have over 200 photos, so if you want to see more, you can find them here: http://on.fb.me/1OLjUVY ) They have a store that sells nothing BUT cheese! So… I of course HAD to pick up some for the AWESOME “Attack her face with it” (as my son calls her) Cynthia St Aubin!

We returned just in time for an awesome event that Kali Willows called “Author Speed Dating”. And oh what fun! 25 of us Authors sat on one side of the table – I was between S.E. Smith (squeal! My mentor and idol!) and Trinity Blacio – then the readers on the other side of the table were able to spend a minute with us (the time FLEW by but there were so many readers we had to cut the time down! After that we had dinner, with most dressing up for the Alice in Wonderland theme! There were some OUTSTANDING costumes!

Saturday was filled with attending different events, one of which was hosted by S.E. Smith so of course I couldn’t miss it! After lunch we had to scramble to gather our things for the signing! It was only open from 2-4 PM so we had about 20 minutes to set up our tables. I had brought more (although slightly different) handmade bookmarks with me, as well as window clings and stickers (which were extremely popular!) of my logo. I also brought some candy, because who doesn’t love candy?! And of course, 20 copies of both of my books! Amazingly, I sold out of all 20 copies in under and hour! (I was told to only bring 10, 5of each, but I decided to bring 20 and I’m glad I did! As it is, I was being pouted at because I didn’t bring enough!)

After that wonderful time of meeting everyone, we all packed up and headed to our rooms to dress for the dinner I helped to sponsor. It was a Paranormal 50’s sock hop! And a LOT of fun! I wore a Marilyn Monroe dress, but sadly my wig didn’t show up in time. But still, we had a blast with great food and spectacular music! Even quite a few giveaways and baskets! I was amazed that every single place we ate at had either a designation for Gluten Free foods, or a separate menu!

Sunday came WAY too swiftly, and soon we were packing up the rental and heading back towards home. We left the hotel at the crack of dawn, in order to make it back into the US before the rush, and man did we time it well! A few minutes after 7:30AM and we were the ONLY car crossing over! Again, we had a handsome guard, this time he was married. Sad. But he took business cards from both of us for his wife! (I had to laugh because he constantly peppered us with questions that had nothing to do with crossing back over!) The 8 hours back to Trinity’s house was long but filled with laughter (and many stops). One stop I picked up several New York souvenirs for MrMan and my son, one of which was this adorable beaver for MrMan! We even passed by where he was born and grew up!

Another two and a half hours saw me home and being “attacked” by a husband that apparently missed me (as if the daily + messages on Facebook weren’t any indication! My cell decided it wasn’t going to work in Canada!) After we unloaded the car, MrMan hurried me inside where the bestest man in the world had a HOT bubble bath and dinner waiting for me!